eddie@edlis.org (Ed Ricardo):
Words by Ian Tyson, music by Peter Gzowski
Recorded by the Mitchell Trio on That's The Way It's Gonna Be and by Ian & Sylvia on "Early Morning Rain".
Who is Peter Gzowski?
We used to get fine reception of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's Inuktitut service here on 9625 kHz I think, but it was discontinued as I think Canadian policy is to remove all good radio from the airwaves, especially if people listen to it.
No doubt all Inuit homes now have cable and McDonalds hamburgers now, but many in Britain liked that overshooting shortwave station.
Be that as it may I recall a name Peter Gzowski and the name Morningside also springs to mind. Are we talking CBC man who also is a songwriter for Bob Dylan or is the name Peter in Canada, there may be several different people under the same name rather like David Davies or John Jones in Wales?
Peter Gzowski did not broadcast in Inuktitut as I recall, anything from him was in English. Don't think he wrote any Inuktitut songs either.
Does this make any sense to anyone? Thought not, just a coincidence.
[If anyone has a frequency for the CBC Inuktitut service do let me know, even if it is satellite only now. Is Radio Canada International still funded, or did Canadians decide VOA represented their voice to the world better? :-) I recall there was some debate about funding and cutting services some while ago...]
Ross Whitwam (REW4@psuvm.psu.edu):
This clearly would be the Peter Gzowski of Morningside fame.
It's not a common name.
One of the things I miss most about Canada is being able to listen to Gzowski on the radio all morning while doing lab work. Morningside is on from 9 a.m. to noon, and Gzowski's brand of leisurely, literate conversation is replicated by NPR's Morning Edition with only part of Morningside's success.
(And Morning Edition ends at 9 a.m. here. So I end up listening to taped music for a far greater portion of the day now, and I go through batteries for my Walkman at a prodigious rate.)
But surely this accreditation to him of the music for "Song For Canada" is a mistake. I don't remember Gzowski ever hinting at any musical ability in all the years I listened to him. He definitely is a big Ian Tyson fan. I remember him gushing over Tyson's _Cowboys Don't Cry_ album a few years back when the album was first released. He also interviewed Tyson in connection with that album and never mentioned ever having collaborated with him (not the sort of thing Gzowski could resist bringing up, I think.)
I know Olof's archives credits "One Single River" to Tyson/Fricker, which would make more sense. Where does this Tyson/Gzowski credit originate?
